12 Facts About Oleksii Murzhenko

Oleksii Hryhorovych Murzhenko was a Ukrainian Soviet dissident and human rights activist.

Oleksii Hryhorovych Murzhenko was born on 23 November 1942 in the city of Lozova in eastern Ukraine, in what was then the Soviet Union.

Oleksii Murzhenko was arrested on 3 March 1962 and charged with anti-Soviet agitation for establishing the Union of Liberty and Reason.

Oleksii Murzhenko was released on 2 March 1968, and returned to Lozova.

In 1970, Oleksii Murzhenko agreed to assist a group of refuseniks in hijacking a plane to flee the Soviet Union.

Oleksii Murzhenko pled guilty to some of the charges, claiming that he was not anti-Soviet and that his life had been ruined by his previous conviction.

Oleksii Murzhenko argued that he had been motivated by a poor family life to join the hijacking.

Oleksii Murzhenko was found guilty on all counts by a Leningrad court and sentenced to fourteen years of imprisonment as a "particularly dangerous recidivist".

Oleksii Murzhenko spent his tenure at Perm-35 and Perm-36, two forced labour camps in Mordovia.

Oleksii Murzhenko was recognised by international human rights non-governmental organisation Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience by June 1979.

Oleksii Murzhenko was not released as part of a June 1979 prisoner swap between the Soviet Union and United States, and remained imprisoned until June 1984, after most of the other participants in the hijacking had already been released.

Oleksii Murzhenko's continued imprisonment, along with that of Fyodorov, was condemned by Soviet dissident leader Andrei Sakharov, as well as United States congressman Raymond J McGrath, who both called for his release.